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Greece's downward economic spiral has accelerated. Data on Tuesday showed that the economy shrank by seven percent in the fourth quarter of last year, even more than the five percent contraction of the third quarter.
Greece is well on its way to suffering one of the biggest slumps of modern history. Gross domestic product has contracted 16 percent from its peak and the austerity will make that worse.
Papademos has said that failure to back the bailout would consign Greece to economic catastrophe.
. . . .
"On the current path - which is not sustainable in my view - we may very well see Greek GDP go down 25-30 percent, which would be historically unprecedented. It's a disastrous crisis for them," said Uri Dadush, at the Carnegie Endowment think tank in Washington.
That would put Greece in the same league as the United States, where the economy shrank 29 percent during the Great Depression.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/02/15/us-greece-idUSTRE8120HI20120215
I'd say the catastrophe is already here.

"this report from Dimitri Lascaris, a lawyer with family in Greece, via Real News Network, gives a flavour of how conditions have deteriorated, even in small towns where social ties are presumably tighter than in Athens..."

a poll published on Thursday showed support for Mr Samaras's New Democracy party slipping, although it would still win most votes if an election were held now. The poll by VPRC for Epikaira magazine put New Democracy on 27.5 per cent, with Pasok on 11 per cent, representing a decline of 3-4 per cent in ND's share of the vote from previous polls, while Pasok's share increased by the same amount.

The two parties may form a coalition government to implement reforms after a general election in April, according to analysts.

The three leftwing parties, which oppose Greece' s second €130bn bail-out, together have the biggest slice of the vote, reflecting popular anger with austerity, but their fractious leaders would not consider co-operating in government, the analysts said.

Tomorrow, the people of Greece will take to the streets again to occupy Syntagma Square in protest of the extreme austerity measures being imposed on the backs of the Greek 99% to the joy and benefit of the European financial elite. The 99% everywhere are under assault by the same global banking interests. Greece is merely the most severe economic crisis yet to be imposed by the International Monetary Fund and other agents of the 1% in the Global North. People all over the world live under the tyranny of policies dictated by the IMF, the World Bank, and the G8. As demonstrated by the wholesale slashing of social services in the name of "debt reduction," New York City and the United States are not immune.....

Greek austerity is driving up the crime rate, at the same time as it forces cutbacks in security staff at major museums.

Armed robbers tied up and gagged the only guard on duty at the antiquities museum in Ancient Olympia, where a ceremony will be held on May 10 to light the flame for the London Olympics.

Quote:

The raiders smashed display cases and stole more than 60 bronze and pottery artefacts from the UNESCO World Heritage site, which dates back 2,800 years.

The mayor of Olympia criticised the lax security at the museum, one of the most important in Greece.

“The level of security is indeed lacking,” Efthimios Kotzas said. “These are treasures. A piece of world heritage has been lost thanks to these thieves ... I think (authorities) should have been more mindful and the security should have been more serious.”...

In January, three works of art, including one by Pablo Picasso and another by the Dutch painter Piet Mondrian, were stolen from the National Gallery in Athens.

"On Tuesday, William Wall's recent article on Greece, 'This Shameful Sacrifice of Greece to the gods of the Market,' was published on the Guardian's Comment is Free site...The article generated a huge number of comments. Many of which used the article to once again repeat the line used too often that the Greek people deserve the level of depravation being forced upon them because of their past profligacy.

The following comment from a Greek citizen, however, stood out as a clear response to that, and it was so good that I felt the need to share it more widely.

Dear Mr Wall,

I am Greek, I am 38 years old and I have two little children. I live in this hell you are describing..."

The rage displayed in Greek cities against austerity measures inspires all who are suffering for the benefit of banks and the rich

I do not like violence. I do not think that very much is gained by burning banks and smashing windows. And yet I feel a surge of pleasure when I see the reaction in Athens and the other cities in Greece to the acceptance by the Greek parliament of the measures imposed by the European Union. More: if there had not been an explosion of anger, I would have felt adrift in a sea of depression.

The joy is the joy of seeing the much-trodden worm turn and roar. The joy of seeing those whose cheeks have been slapped a thousand times slapping back. How can we ask of people that they accept meekly the ferocious cuts in living standards that the austerity measures imply? Do we want them to just agree that the massive creative potential of so many young people should be just eliminated, their talents trapped in a life of long-term unemployment? All that just so that the banks can be repaid, the rich made richer? All that, just to maintain a capitalist system that has long since passed its sell-by date, that now offers the world nothing but destruction. For the Greeks to accept the measures meekly would be to multiply depression by depression, the depression of a failed system compounded by the depression of lost dignity....

"A written document giving firm dates and detailed plans for a Greek default has been in the possession of two top Wall Street bank currency trading bosses since the second week of January. The plan gives a firm date of March 23 for default to be announced after the close of business.."

"The hero of Greece's anti-NAZI resistance movement, Manolis Glezos, has appealed to anti-capitalist protesters to 'overturn a rotten system.' 'We have become the guinea pigs of policies exacted by governments whose only god is money,' said Glezos, famous for ripping down the swastika from the Acropolis within days of Nazi forces overrunning Greece.

He told the Observer, 'It starts here but will move to other states. That's why we're seeing this solidarity because people are reacting.." Under the banner 'We Are All Greeks!', demonstrations from Dusseldorf to New York denounced the draconian belt-tightening measures."

We are very moved by the outpouring of support from the people of Nantes to the people of Greece at these very difficult times of our history. Your solidarity is an expression of humanity at its best.

While for nearly two years the obligations of Greece to European banks are a regular feature of the news worldwide, while Greece is under a punitive assault by the IMF, EU and the European Central Bank (Troika), and while this assault poses a great threat to the project of a United Europe, very little attention has been paid to the long-overdue obligations of others to Greece. On July 2, 2011, the French economist and consultant to the French government Jacques Delpla stated that Germany owes to Greece 575 billion euros from Second World War obligations (Les Echos, Saturday, July 2, 2011). On September 18, 2011, the German newspaper Die Welt admitted that Germany owes to Greece many billions of euros from obligations arising, at least, from a forcibly obtained loan from Greece during World War II.We would greatly appreciate it, if you would publish in your Newsletter the petition of the Forum of Hellenic Professors and PhDs, shown below, requesting the German government to honor its long-overdue obligations to Greece by repaying the forcibly obtained occupation loan, and by paying the World War II war reparations awarded to Greece by international agreements.Our petition has already collected over 140,000 signatures. You can find more information at the website

The story below is has been sent to us by a Spanish friend from the marches, that is in Greece and is an example of what is not being said about Greece.

“The international media have talked about last nightin Greece. They talked about fire, chaos, violence … They talk about the 100,000 people gathered in Syntagma, but not the200,000 who really had or the 300,000 who could not reach theplace because the streets and subways were blocked by police.

They have talked about how the police provoked the start of the riotsat 17:00 throwing tear gas indiscriminately throughout theSyntagma Square, the demonstrators dispersed around the centerAthens, in order not to bother outside parliament.

The media has spoken of destruction indiscrimanada, have run therumor that the National Library of Athens burned in flames. False.

Have burned banks, cafes and shops, franchises industriesmultimillionarias Greece which led to this situation, the mediaspeak of young anti, but they speak of women and menelderly people with their gas masks to show their support for hoursrhythmically pounding the gates of banks and multinationalhands and feet, whistling and shouting in support of the first lines thatembites resisted the riot in the streets full oftear and fire, clapping when they saw the flames in alpha bank andEurobank.

They talk about the violence does not fix the situation in Greece, but nottalk about inter-neighborhood assembly which was held last week in thepantios University, do not say that the occupation of the University ofnomiki had intended to be a place of exchange and debate amongdifferent movements Greeks, do not talk about the free diningexchange markets are held weekly in neighborhoods.

What the media will not say is that after the last massive expropriationa supermarket, and distribution of food in a working class neighborhood Thessaloniki, the old saying that time had not reached thatwe returned to enter, and although at present they do not come, they know whereis its people.

What does not say is that as we walked by a working class neighborhood in asmall demonstration from the center, people looked out the balconyraising his fist, and the expression increased its flow, peopledown from their homes, they added, the old leaning applauded, theold … Hell, they sang the old hymns, Pope did not understand but notyou imagine, you become our idea, and we do not tell the media, but itnosotrxs say.

Here in Athens, they know they are not alone, that all over Europe follows the sameway, they do not know is that we are making the rest of europe … ifwe are doing something the rest of Europe.

"Eurozone finance ministers have reached a deal for a second 130 billion-euro bailout for crisis-stricken Greece. The country's debt will also be lowered by private holders who agreed to face value loss of 53.5 percent on their bonds..."

"The Houses of Morgan, Goldman and the other Big Five are justifiably worried right now, because an 'event of default' declared on European Sovereign debt could jeopardize their $32 Trillion derivatives scheme..."

More significantly, Greece will have to pass within the next two months a new law that gives paying off the country's debts legal priority over funding government services. In the meantime, Athens has to set up a kind of escrow account, managed separately from its main budget, that will at all times have to contain enough money to service its debts for the coming three months.

These requirements, together with tighter on-the-ground monitoring, are an unprecedented intrusion into the fiscal affairs of a sovereign state in Europe and could eventually see Greece being forced to pay interest on its debt before compensating teachers, doctors and other state employees.

You get a sense of what's lurking just around the corner in the Greek context when you see pensioners throwing rocks and Molotov cocktails at police, alongside the grand kids. All bets are off if the state there ends up shooting more people in the streets, in its own desperation and panic.

What also comes to mind in recalling Flaherty's muted and intentional alarm about Canadian exposure to the European debt crisis, is that our own casino society is being kept aloft on the backs of Greek citizens, and upon the bruised heads and bodies of protesters there.

We, the Greek committee against the Debt, take the initiative to address you all, offering you to decide, prepare and organize a great, unitarian, combative and massive European day of Solidarity with the Greek people, and at the same time a day of action against the policies of austerity, privatizations and dismantling of public services all around Europe, taking as a central demand the annulation of the Greek public debt. The reason for our proposal is obvious: using the Greek debt as a pretext, the Troika, that is to say the IMF, the ECB and the European Commission have turned Greece into a laboratory of the most inhumane, antidemocratic and antisocial austerity policies. By testing the stamina and capacity of resistance of the Greek people who have been transmuted into a guinea-pig, the Troika leads the way for the generalization of these policies being applied all around Europe. However, today, that is two years after the launching of this frontal aggression against the Greek guinea-pig, there is no place for any kind of doubt: in the streets and on the squares of Greece, it is not only the fate of Greek society, of national sovereignty and Greek democracy, so badly brutalized, that is at stake, the fate of workers and retired people, the fate of unemployed people, of Greek youth and women and of all oppressed people in our country. What is at stake is also the fate of the immense majority of European Citizens for whom Troika, antidemocratic reaction and big investors have in store the same future.

So yes, we are not afraid of saying that: what Spain was to Europe of “those from below” in 1936”, fighting Greece of 2012 tends to become to today’s Europe ! In 1936, there has been a defeat because Spanish resistance to triumphant fascism remained tragically alone and helpless. Needless to remind you the nightmarish consequences that were brought up back then by the Spanish “guinea-pig” ’s defeat, and the open wounds that it left behind it up to now.

The question we are posing you is very simple: Are we willing today to accept such a repetition of history, are we prepared to accept a crushing defeat of today’s Greek guinea-pig, which would have tragic and long term consequences for all the peoples and all workers in Europe?

Dear Friends, dear comrades,

We are sure that your answer will be a ringing NO. However, this is no longer enough, in the current state of things. When time desperately presses, as the people of Greece doesn’t have unlimited time margins of resistance in front of an international, over armed, very well organized and coordinated class enemy, the situation requires one first direct, sonorous and massive European manifestation of solidarity in acts. In other words, we need at last a European scaled mobilization of “those from below”, which would have a double function: on one hand, to show to Greek people who are fighting that they are not alone, that their fight is part of a larger fight of all the oppressed people in Europe, and thus that they have more chances to win. On the other hand, to make the first step and the starting point for the creation and development of the European mass resistance movement that we need so badly!

Having all this in mind, we believe, dear Friends and comrades, that the Brussels Meeting of European countries and North Africa audit campaigns, on April, 7th, offers a great opportunity to discuss, but also to adopt and push forward our proposal so that it be supported by the largest number of social movements, as well as social, trade union and political forces of our continent…

Hoping that your reaction will be positive, we are looking forward to your response as well as to any other idea, proposal or initiative of yours.

Attac France offers you to organize together an international delegation of social movements in Greece

Attac France offers you to organize together an international delegation of social movements in Greece as soon as possible. We have many objectives:

- to be the carriers of a concrete solidarity - Meet and discuss with local social actors - come back with materials for strengthening the solidarity at the European level: video support, call in the direction of European populations, interviews of different social actors, etc.

All of this should enable a solidarity European movement to strengthen and express itself more profoundly and to help the mobilizations in our respective countries.

We have launched this proposition in France and we decided to go on Monday 27 early in the morning until Wednesday 29 late in the afternoon. We have already made contacts by various means on site: Social Greek Forum, Indignants, unions, contacts with Greek students and workers in Paris with whom we work with.

We wish to know as soon as possible if you wish to join this initiative.

When even the media paragon of free-market ideology argues that “Greece must default if it wants democracy,” you know something is profoundly wrong.

Here at ROAR, we usually don’t rely on the analyses brought forward by the mainstream media; in particular not those of the unreconstituted neoliberal intelligentsia at the Financial Times. But the latest article by financial analyst and EU expert Wolfgang Münchau deserves being disseminated widely. Arguing that “Greece must default if it wants democracy,” Münchau has just launched his most scathing critique of the EU’s approach to Greece yet:

"When Wolfgang Schäuble proposed that Greece should postpone its elections as a condition for further help, I knew that the game would soon be up. We are at the point where success is no longer compatible with democracy. The German finance minister wants to prevent a “wrong” democratic choice. Similar to this is the suggestion to let the elections go ahead, but to have a grand coalition irrespective of the outcome. The eurozone wants to impose its choice of government on Greece – the eurozone’s first colony."

As a leading columnist, Münchau’s articles are widely read by policymakers in Brussels, Berlin and Paris. A friend of mine who used to work in the European Parliament once told me that his writings are extremely influential in informing the political debate among the Brussels eurocrats. What’s more, Münchau can hardly be considered a leftist or a radical. Indeed, most of his work has focused on how to save European capitalism from itself....

An additional 15 percent wage cut to their salaries — which have already been reduced by 30 percent since 2009 — to increase ‘competitiveness’, or so they say;

A 22 percent reduction of the minimum wage: 32 percent for people under 25, to tackle youth unemployment [!], or so they say;

Which in turn automatically brings unemployment benefits (for those lucky ones who are eligible for one, for Greece does not have a minimum income scheme) to a level below the poverty threshold;

A 7-20 percent cut in pensions (including those pensions currently as low as 300 euros);

Laying off 15.000 civil servants in 2012, and 150.000 before 2015 (in a country with more than 20 percent unemployment already!);

A 1,1 billion euro reduction in pharmaceutical expenditures;

Just a tiny 0.15% GDP reduction in military expenditure (Greece has been the #6 top-spender on military equipment as a share of GDP in the world in the past 15 years, displaying a major preference to German and French weapons);

At the same time, (profitable!) state owned enterprises and assets (ports, airports, motorways, energy, real estate) will be privatized (“transferred to more productive uses”, as they call it in the neoliberal slang).

"So Greece: Just default on your 'sovereign debt' to the German bankers and the Troika vultures. All governments should understand that you either govern for the people and against the bankers, or you govern for the bankers and against the people."